Lulu Forums Policies & Guidelines

[David Woodward]

Lulu's forums help build a strong community of creators by fostering discussion and sharing information. Messages posted by Lulu community members are solely the opinion and responsibility of the person posting the message. All users posting to the Lulu forums must read this Forum Posting Policy.

Posting to the forums constitutes your agreement to the terms outlined in this Forum Posting Policy. For more information on Lulu's terms of service, please also see our Member Agreement.

Please treat all Community Leaders and their decisions with respect. As volunteers helping users and moderating the Lulu forums, they deserve your courtesy as much as we feel you deserve theirs. While we're the first to admit we're not perfect, we strive to be impartial and conduct ourselves in the fairest manner as possible for all. In order to provide you with a safe and positive experience on our forums, some moderation actions taken in the forums by our Community Leader may not be explicitly covered under these guidelines if we feel certain posts are not in the best interest of our community. If at any time you feel a Community Leader, or another user treats you unfairly or inappropriately, please send an email to communityabuse@lulu.com.

By following the "Policies and Guidelines," you help to ensure that the Lulu Forums remain an enjoyable environment for everyone. Violating these rules may result in your removal from both the forums and other Lulu services.
The following are the Policies and Guidelines and apply to "public" threads, private messages, visitor messages on user profiles, social groups, and any other form of communication within Lulu Forums:

1. Remember the Golden Rule - Treat others as you'd want to be treated -
Misunderstanding on forums are quite common often times because of the difficulty understanding the tone implied in other user's remarks. In fact, quite often something you may interpret as being harshly worded or rude may just be someone else's form of offering you support. Take extra care to be kind in your comments to other users and never react negatively to comments you perceive as rude or otherwise objectionable. Instead, it's always wiser to either end the discussion, ignore the comment entirely, or in more severe cases report the offense to our moderators by clicking the "Report Abuse" button beside the post. Remember: two wrongs don't make a right. Responding to another user's comments in a manner contrary to our posting policy will be viewed by our moderators as equally inappropriate and may result in sanctions against your forum privileges.

2. Do not use abusive or disrespectful behavior.
Disagreements or conflict may arise in the course of discussion. Please remember to be courteous when disagreeing with others. Debate on differing opinions is appropriate. Personal attacks against other users, however, are not allowed.
The following behaviors are examples of what will not be tolerated on the Lulu forums.

• Flaming - posts that are designed to personally berate or insult another user.
• Trolling - posting derogatory or inflammatory comments/threads attempting to bait other users into responding. Accusing someone of being a troll is also a form of trolling.
• Personal attacks - posts which insult a poster directly. This includes any attacks against forum moderators, Lulu representatives, or employees.
• Attack requests - posting another player's personal profile in an attempt to have other players attack or engage in player versus player combat.

This list is non-exhaustive. ANY behavior which is patently offensive is also forbidden.

3. Do not haze new posters.
New members should feel welcome to post their questions, no matter how well-informed. Do not harass them for asking questions or treat them poorly for not knowing an answer. Remember, we were all new once! Please welcome them to our boards and help them find the information they are looking for.

4. Search for answers before posting
Chances are if you have a problem or question, you're not the first to experience it. Someone may have posted the same question before you and received an answer on that subject or the subject may have been covered by Staff in an Announcement or Sticky. Read through the forums or do a keyword search on your question on the Forum Search Page. This can save you and our community time and effort and add your thoughts to a larger existing discussion.

5. Requests for assistance
If you're having a problem and need direct assistance from staff, please contact Lulu Customer Service by filling out a Help Form. Typically customer service will respond to your inquiry with 48 business hours from the time the inquiry is sent. If after 48 hours you do not receive a response or are not happy with the response you received, you may post a message in the forums detailing the problem.

6. Do not post personal information.
Please respect the privacy of others. Do not give out or re-post ANYONE'S personal information such as names, phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, etc. This applies to your own information and that of other users, Lulu employees, family members, etc.

7. Do not post private communication between Lulu Customer Support, members, moderators, community managers, community leaders administrators of the forum, other employees, or partners of Lulu on these forums or anywhere else.
Publicizing any private correspondence such as support tickets, email, Private Message (PM) correspondence, or chat logs thereof is not permitted without prior permission.

8. Do not discuss moderator actions on the forums.
If you do not agree with a board decision, you may PM a moderator or community leader. You may NOT start a thread or post complaining that your post was removed. Nor may you post private correspondence from moderators, such as infraction or warning notices. Questions or comments concerning warnings and suspensions (site or forum) should be conveyed through e-mail or private messaging.

9. Do not make non-constructive posts.
Below are examples of prohibited non-constructive posts:

• Spam - repetitive posting of the same topic or text or nonsensical posts that have no substance and are often designed to annoy other forum users. This includes "Add Me" posts outside of the Add Me Forum. The solicitation or advertisement of content or other goods, services, or other information not found or published on Lulu is considered "spam" and not allowed anywhere in our forums.
• Bumping - posting on threads in order to keep them near the top of the forum list. Commenting on obsolete or old topics with the intent to bump them into discussion is also prohibited.
• Advertising - Lulu prohibits posting of advertising links, images or content for the purpose of self-promotion outside of the Shameless Promotion Forum. Hijacking or creating a new thread for the purpose of solicitation or advertising of content or any posts which could be interpreted as a solicitation, including the promotion of content published on Lulu.com, are prohibited outside of their relevant forums.
• Hijacking - Try to keep all replies to a thread on the topic at hand. Posting's which are intentionally off-topic or try to sway the discussion completely or partially off topic are generally considered rude.
• Lobbying - continually bringing up the same topic in numerous different threads or as an off-topic post in official threads to get developer attention.
• Cross posting - Posting the same topic or thread in more than one forum is considered cross posting. As a courtesy to others before beginning a new thread, please look to see if an active thread on that topic has already been established by using the Search feature.
• "I'm quitting" threads.
• Signing - posts which contain only the text "/signed" or "+1" to show agreement with the previous post. These are discouraged as they do not engender constructive discussion.
• Malicious or Disruptive Code. The use of JavaScript, active or other coding, making repetitive posts, or other actions that interfere with site operations is forbidden. Any malicious code or employment of a robot, spider or other process or device to harvest e-mail addresses or other User information or to monitor the activity on the Forums is also forbidden.
• Data Mining/Harvesting & Employing Bots. Using the Lulu forums as a means to acquire private information from other community members through any methods.
• False obituary threads
• Threads that make threats or use other combative language.
• Threads that single out a user for ridicule.
• Conspiracy Threads - claims or complaints about Lulu or any of its employees acting in collusion with or showing favoritism a group or player.

10. NEVER impersonate another forum user, community manager, moderator, Community Leader, administrator or Lulu employee.
You are prohibited from impersonating anyone else, including those named above, on the forum or the Lulu site.

11. Do not post disruptive off-topic threads.
These forums are for and about Lulu. We do, however, allow non-disruptive off topic discussion in our forums as fitting with the community of posters who frequent them. Constructive discussion about other sites (comparing and contrasting) is allowed at the discretion of Lulu. Likewise, any topics (such as politics or religion) that are volatile or disruptive are discouraged and can be removed at our discretion. Please contact a Community Leader if you have questions about a topic being permitted on the forums.

12. Post your comments in the most relevant forum
While at times it's not always clear where to post your comments, do your best to post to the most appropriate forum. And don't forget; posting of promotional material or review requests are prohibited except within the Shameless Promotion and Reviews forums respectively. It's always best way ensure your comments are visible to the people you want reading them so your comments are not moved or deleted by our moderators.

13. Post comments to the correct language forum
Whatever your language preferences, please post in the appropriate language forums. Lulu currently offers forums in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, and Portuguese.
Posts which do not reflect the language specified for that forum may be moved to a more appropriate forum without warning.

14. Do not post advertisements for other companies.Advertising of any kind for other companies on these forums is strictly prohibited.

15. Do not use proxy posting or account hopping to evade suspension.
Posting on behalf of a suspended user is not allowed. Working around a suspension through other people's accounts, creation of new accounts or use of secondary accounts to continue posting is also prohibited. You are personally responsible for your conduct on the forums. If you create a new account to continue posting after your account has been suspended, any forum and accounts involved can be permanently banned. Forum and site suspensions generally apply to a person, rather than a specific account. Threads designed to announce, appeal or contest a forum or site suspension decision on behalf of a third party will also be removed without notice. If you do not understand why you were suspended or have further questions, you must contact support.

16. Do not post "Legal Action" or "Boycott" threads.
Using the forums or PMs for encouraging, promoting, endorsing, or inciting any kind of legal action, reporting, or boycott endeavor against anyone is strictly prohibited.

17. Do not post sensitive or confidential information covered by a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or beta testing agreement.
Any information about Lulu or third party covered by an NDA or Beta Testing Agreement that is posted will be removed. Posters of the information may be banned from all Lulu Services and may face legal action.

18. User Generated Content
You may post images on the forums as long as they are of an appropriate and non-offensive nature and do not otherwise infringe the intellectual property rights of any party. The following images (or links pointing to such images) are examples what may not be posted: any image which is sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, derogatory, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, contains profanity, or depicts illegal activity.
Any image that is disruptive or, in Lulu's sole discretion, appears to be in poor taste will be removed and your forum account may be banned.

19. Zero Tolerance Policy
Immediate suspensions from the forum can result from any of the following: the posting of pornography; remarks which are sexually explicit, harmful, threatening, abusive, defamatory, obscene, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive; or vulgar which discuss or illustrate illegal activity; provide links to sites that contain any of the aforementioned.

20. Proprietary forums
The Lulu Message Boards are private message forums administered by Lulu. All message board content is allowed at the discretion of Lulu. Lulu reserves the right to remove any message board content without notice and for any reason.

21. Copyright
Lulu will respond to clear notices of alleged copyright, trade mark or other intellectual property rights infringement. For more information, please visit our Terms of Service.

22. Suspension and Termination
Lulu shall determine, in its sole discretion, whether there has been a breach of these Forum Policies and may take any action it deems appropriate.
Your use of the forums is conditioned upon your compliance with the Forum Policies and the Lulu Terms of Service. Failure to comply with these Policies & Guidelines shall constitute a material breach of those Terms and may result in Lulu taking any or all of the following actions:

• Remove any material or postings you have made to the forums;
• Issue a warning;
• Suspend or Ban your Lulu account and/or your use of the forums;
• Disclose such information to law enforcement authorities as Lulu feels is reasonably necessary; and/or
• Pursue legal action against you.
• Lulu excludes all liability for:
  (a) any action taken in response to breaches of these Policies and Guidelines. The responses described in the Policies and Guidelines are not exhaustive, and Lulu may take any other action, in its sole discretion, it deems appropriate;
  (b) any loss or damage arising from the use of the forum by you;
  (c) any content posted or uploaded by users of the forum which shall include, without limitation, any liability for offensive and/or defamatory posts.

23. Changes to these Policies and Guidelines
Lulu may revise these Policies and Guidelines at any time by making changes to this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes Lulu makes, as they are legally binding on you. Some of the provisions contained in these Policies and Guidelines may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on the Lulu site.